Just Me

That was me today. If I could shank the ball, I did!

I started out stupendously! We started on hole #15, which is the #2 handicap hole for the women. I parred it. I had 4 amazing shots, especially for 8am! I had another opportunity on #16. My putt missed the hole by millimeters, so I got a 5. I had a little trouble on #17…nothing new there, but parred #18. I mean it really felt good. I did fine until the real Donna showed up on #5 and the good player disappeared. I was heading for an amazing round until the real me showed up. Such is life…or such is golf!

I hit 6 GIR, which for me, is amazing! I did break my prior record, set last week when I broke 5 tees in a round! Today, I broke 7. It’s starting to get expensive!!

As poorly as I played, I still shot under 100, with my handicap. It’s just when I think of what score I could have had. I coulda been a contender!!

I had a shot on #14, our last hole (I hate ending on a par 5). The only thing anyone saw was my tee flying off to the left. Of course the ball must have stayed in the clods because we never saw it. 4 people looking for the ball and it never came down. My theory…since the tee went left, so should have the ball…so it must have gone into the creek on a fly. I scanned the fairway and never saw it come down!

You can’t lose an old golf ball.

You’re noticed I’m not talking about the Mets this year. Between the injuries and the losses, my heart has been breaking all Spring…and now into the summer. They lost all the games in last weekend’s Subway Series…so there’s notmuch to write about except disappointment after disappointment!

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It was not one of my better rounds. In fact, I didn’t do much right today. I did manage to lose a ball. It was on the 14th hole’s drive. It hit the cart path, bounced quite high and I’m afraid, right into the creek. It was no where to be seen.

I also managed to break my record for decapitated tees. I hit the 5 mark today.

I didn’t sleep very well last night. Add that to  a hot day and I just couldn’t gather any energy. My tee shots were puny, my putts were dismembered. I had trouble keeping focus because I was pooped! That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

I got to the point, at about the 16th hole, where I said the hell with it. I had several “I don’t give a shit” shots that worked out as well, if not better, than the ones I take my time with. So that’s how I played the remaining two holes. I bogeyed both. Should have started that earlier.

So…it wasn’t a great day…nothing sterling happened, no pars, no GIR, just a normal, crummy scoring day on the course. Of course, I was outside, playing golf with my friends, so there’s always a plus.

I had a shot on #3…my second after a fairly decent drive. I hit a low line drive into the fairway bunker. It popped up and I was hoping it would have enough to pop out. Unfortunately, it hit the lip and got buried in the sand…under the lip…I mean more than 1/2 the ball was buried. I had to take an unplayable. I did OK getting out, but it still cost me a stroke.

I did have another bunker shot on #10 that came out nicely and landed considerably nearer the hole than I thought I deserved. I did well on the several bunkers I got in today. I’m learning not to try to kill the ball, but to hit it easily and follow through. It seems to be the key.

So…I hope it’s out of my system so I’m OK for Wednesday.

I can airmail the golf ball, but sometimes I don’t put the right address on it.

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It’s almost 90, the humidity is up. It wasn’t oppressive, but you knew it was there. In spite of it all, it was a lovely day to be on the golf course with friends. This is the first time all year we’ve been able to play 3 days in a row. I’m actually surprised I was able to do it…physically. I guess when they killed the nerves in my back, it was one less thing to bother me…not that my back doesn’t ache, but I’ve got a whole lot more flexibility than I did before they assisted it.

I was very consistent all week - 3 scores in the 90s. Not bad. I still have to do better though. I’m striving to break 90 and I know I can do it. I have to have a round where I don’t have a case of the stupids and blow a hole or three. That’s the key!!

I didn’t birdie any holes today but I did par 2 of the 3 holes I had yet to par this year. I finally got one on hole #1. The par on #13 was bizarre. I had a series of unfortunate events that helped me get on the green in 3 and one putt. I didn’t have more than a 2 putt the entire round. Image that – the concept of keeping your head down really works.

Anyway, back to 13. I pulled the ball badly to the right on my tee shot, across the cart path but inbounds. My second shot went through the trees, bounced on the cart path about 2 times and settled on the side of the hill in front and to the left of the green. My third shot was, that I thought was going to be puny, turned out to be a short chip out of the rough that bounced nicely and landed about 4 feel from the pin. My putt was dead on and I got the par.

On #12, my tee shot was in the rough on the right. I go right a lot. When I get sloppy, I slice or draw the ball. This was a fairly easy iron shot over a mound and back out onto the fairway. Well, normally it would have been. I hit it badly (my aim sucked the big one) and it bounced on the cart parth to the right, the bounce took it out of bounds, it hit someone’s stairs to their deck and settled somewhere in their back yard. Needless to say, I didn’t even bother looking for it. I just dropped another ball, hit it where the first one should have gone and continued to play.

Rest time now. I’m beat but I’ll be ready to play again Monday….it’s what I do!

The secret of missing a tree is to aim straight at it.

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Yup…today was my day for the 300 yard drives. Did it on several holes. Of course that’s 100yards up, 100 yards out and 100 yards down

I only lost one ball, but totally decapitated 4 tees while hitting those 300 yard drives.

I had 4 of the suckiest holes in a row you’d ever want to see, then one I won’t even talk about that I parred yesterday. I did birdie #17, which is the hole I usually get in trouble on (like everyone else), but today the golf gods were shining on me for that hole. One shot to the edge, one shot onto the green and one putt. Thats the way you want to play it!.

And to boot, I did something I so rarely do that I should bronze the score card. I parred all 4 Par 3s. Even my nemisis #11 was good to me today. I shot 2 strokes less than I did yesterday. We’ll see what I do tomorrow.

My mantra today was keep your head down. I picked up and peeked on too many shots today and it ends up costing you. I have to talk more to myself!

It was another beautiful golf day. It was hard to believe when I woke up this morning and saw the sun that it was actually Wednesday. What a pleasant change from most of the Wednesday’s we’ve had since the league started in April. Again there was low humidity…almost negligible. There was a pleasant breeze, so it wan’t terrible out there. Tomorrow, the humidity is suppoed to come back and the temps are supposed to be in the 90s. Hopefully, we’ll finish before it gets too brutal. Early morning tee time.

Willis’ Rule of Golf: You can’t lose an old golf ball.

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We didn’t play until 1:40pm so it started out a bit hotter than I like, but there was a nice breeze and no humidity. Tuesday is the men’s league day so we couldn’t get on until after they were finished. The only problem for me playing this late is that I sit too much at home and by the time I get out to play, I’m stiff.

Considering I haven’t played since last Monday (we got screwed out of playing yesterday…long story) I did OK. I had a couple of sloppy shots and one that I just threw away, but for the most part, I did fine…broke 100 again.

I hit 5 greens in regulation which is always a good thing. Unfortunately, I didn’t capitalize on any of them. Managed 3 pars…one being on the #1 handicap hole…our #4. I was quite pleased with that.

Except for one hole, my bunker play as decent, I didn’t skull the ball once – which is a record. So, all in all, it was a good day. It was really a beautiful summer day and a great day to be on the golf course. We’ve had so few days like this…it’s nice to enjoy them while they last.

I can airmail the golf ball, but sometimes I don’t put the right address on it.

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Our greens are tediously slow…so today they’re doing something about it. This forced us to start on the back 9 as they were doing their thing on the front first.

So, we started on 10. I love the back nine, but it’s somewhat easier than the front so playing it first isn’t always a good thing because it leaves the harder front nine to play when you’re starting to get tired (yes, I’m old, I get tired especially in the heat…get over it!). I was just looking for a better outing than I had last Wednesday (of course on league day I fall to pieces). I did. I was absolutely crushing the ball on my drives. They were going straight and flying out there. I use a step tee (one less thing to think about) but they’re no longer working for me as they’re too short. I’ve got the same driver, but I must be hitting the ball differently. Today, I barely put that tee in the ground and I was crushing my drives. That made me feel good.

Of course, I made some mistakes. It wouldn’t be my golf game without them…but for the most part I was striking the ball well. I only skulled one chip shot the entire round (a record for me) and although my putting wasn’t spectacular, it’s getting better.

The interesting part of today’s round was, starting on the back first, the first 9 greens were slow. We adjusted for that. When we got to the front 9, where the greens had been dressed to speed them up, they flew. It took almost the entire nine to get the pace.

I hit 3 greens in regulation and capitalized on 2 of them with pars. That’s a great feeling. So I feel like I’m back on track, but on any given day, you never know what player is coming out…the A player or the D player. So far, the A player has come out more often….

It takes hundreds of good shots to gain confidence, but only one bad one to lose it.

Step Tee

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I seemed to have lost my sorts because I’ve been out of sorts all week. Today it came to a head. I could do absolutely nothing right. The funniest part of all this is I parred 2 of the 4 Par 3s. Everything else went to crap!

For the first 9 holes I kept getting angrier and angrier at myself. Usually, once I take the shot, good, bad or indifferent, it’s over and all I can do is move on. Today, for some reason, I couldn’t do that and just let it continue to build up. I finally snapped myself out of it and started playing golf, but I just didn’t feel like I had any business being on the course today. It was just one of those days.

To visually express how I felt today, the photo shows storm clouds outside my front door last evening. They were so angry looking, I had to have a photo as I’ve never seen clouds look quite like that (when I had access to a camera). They pretty much sum up how I felt today on the course.

My clubs are well used, but unfortunately not used well.

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We had another tournament at our course today (it’s that time of year) so we got another reciprocal. Unfortunately, they had something going in the morning so we got to start at noon. Luckily, it’s an executive course (only par 3s and 4s) so we were able to play it an hour quicker.

Well, it’s 4:30 and it’s 93 so I can’t imagine what it was earlier. It was also very humid so it was rough starting so late.

For me, it was also rough because of all the par 3s I had to fight with. The longest was 109 yeads, the shortest 57 yards…I could throw it. It’s not that I don’t need practice on my short game, because I do….but not sure I wanted that much practice.

I did play all my irons. I only used my driver on the par 4s, but I didn’t use my 3 wood or any of my rescue clubs. I got a lot of iron work and that was a good thing. I managed 7 greens in regulation, which for me is fantastic…considering all those par 3s. I was hitting all my short irons very well. I did have a few mishits, but for the most part, I was right on with my pitching wedge and sand wedge (which I used a lot to tee off….that’s how short the holes are).

It was brutally hot…but I was on the course with friends playing golf. Beats being inside in front of the computer.

We did see some amazing things on the course, however. On the first hole, a mama deer ran across the fairway behind us with her two little ones. They were really tiny so they couldn’t have been very old. It was way kewl.

Then, there’s a blue heron on that course as well. It was flying around by one of the ponds. We saw it quite a bit. Well, it must have been lunch or dinner time because it flew down on the edge of the green with its lunch. It must have been a fish. It was quite kewl to watch…wish I’d had my camera for both…but it’s really hard to play and take pictures, much as I’d like to.

Luckily, he’d eaten all of whatever it was he had because there were no parts or pieces where he ate. I love a man who cleans up after himself!

So I played to my handicap…not the best but it was very hot. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!

Missing a short putt does not mean you have to hit your next drive out of bounds.

Here are a couple of images from the Regency Course at Dominion Valley (taken from their web site)

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No golf again today…more rain. Working on 3″ for the past 3 days

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We had a home and home tournament today that we hosted. It’s a fun tourney where we invite several other clubs to bring members and we mix everyone together. It’s a stroke play best two balls of the foursome event. Of course, like every other tourney, you still have to keep your regular score for posting.

It was, of course, supposed to rain, but it held off and the sun even came out for the entire time we were out there. It was, however very hot and icky humid. I had a decent day. I was stroking the ball well, for the most part. My putting has greatly improved now that I’m keeping my big head down, so that’s a plus that I’m not 3 and 4 putting as much as I used to.

I did break 100 so that was good, since the last few times I played, I haven’t. I just haven’t felt comfortable out ther…but today was better. I felt more as one with my clubs

All in all, it was a great day to be on the course, playing with 1 old and 2 new friends and just to be able to enjoy the day!

Handicap - An allocation of strokes on one or more holes that permits two golfers of very different ability to do equally poorly on the same course.  

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